100 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



the lower branches, which adds to its rugged 

 battle-worn look. When the light of the 

 setting sun shines on the stem and larger 

 branches they turn to a deep crimson, and 

 glow as with an inward fire. 



The name we give to this tree must not 

 mislead us into thinking of it as exclusively 

 or mainly a Scotch tree, doubtfully indigenous 

 also in England. It is the commonest of pine- 

 trees in Northern Europe. There are vast 

 forests of it in Russia and Germany. In 

 Scandinavia and Lapland it is also completely 

 at home. Need the reader be reminded of 

 Milton's choosing the tallest of Norwegian 

 pines as the mere wand compared with the 

 spear which Satan used ''to support uneasy 

 steps over the burning marl " ? 



Most of us, probably, are familiar with the 

 resinous odour of pine and fir-trees ; and the 

 mention of this leads to the note that a 

 pleasurable scent only exceptionally, as in the 

 case of the flowering limes, enters into the 

 enjoyment the larger trees afford us. 



The second of our indigenous conifers, the 

 yew, is a tree the associations of which might 

 detain us long. Evelyn regrets that, aheady, 



